


Character Poems: The Dark Signers

by reminiscence



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: Freeverse, Gen, Poetry, freeverse collection, lj challenge: 100_poems, word count: 1001-1500 words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-14
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-23 02:12:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9636296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reminiscence/pseuds/reminiscence
Summary: This is the moment each of them turned on humanity and rejected their death. Dark-Signers!centric.





	1. Kalin Kessler

The hunger gnawed at him,  
ate him from within  
like a monster, without fangs  
nor claws, and yet  
scratching, scraping  
on flimsy wall  
and mopping up the debris that fell

And it was a sad state  
he was in, alone in the dark  
and defeated, without even  
anger, or desire,  
to feed him strength

And it was only whispers  
in his ears

Loud

Louder

And clear, perfectly clear.

He found himself listening  
and the small pricks of pain  
became a vicious beast  
prowling in its cage:  
working up an appetite,  
preparing, preparing to

Strike

Kill

Devour the meat that fell  
before him –

And he was burning again,  
a putrid taste on his tongue –  
that liquid that snuck through  
his closed throat  
as he hacked it open again  
and sat up, a shaking bony arm  
as the prop

And he let the puppet take his mind  
and steer him, towards those  
appetisers, and finally  
the main course.


	2. Misty Tredwell

The wind turned on her one night,  
treacherous whispers in the breeze  
that came by and ruffled his hair  
and hers…  
and then swept him out of reach.

She tried to follow, but the soft  
protecting cloak had become a wall  
she could not break  
nor penetrate.

It sucked her dry, in the end,  
of water as the dry air  
scraped her face, burnt her eyes  
and pressed her blistered feet  
on a desert road  
as she tried to reach the sky…

And then it caught her, held her tight  
and she closed her eyes with a sigh,

But a voice whispered in her ear,  
reminding her of what she searched,  
what she sought,  
the thing in the skies she was reaching for

And she agreed, forced her crackled lips  
and baked eyelids apart, accepting  
the foundation that covered  
the wrinkles that marred her skin –

It was never her brother she was looking for  
after all – she'd seen him, a broken doll  
cast aside – but she was thirsty, she realised  
for something else, and she was a  
vampire who had almost let  
her prey go.


	3. Devack

It was when he reached for the sky.  
Too far – he toppled  
and the wind, wasn't there to catch him.

If only he had been standing at the edge  
of something  
but he'd been still on the stairs,  
always on the stairs.

He tried to change the world  
but no-one listened, no-one cared.  
They were happy to drown in gold  
and coal, and ignore the green,  
greedy pigs

Who rolled in the much and all he'd tried  
was to clean it up a bit.

But they didn't listen. They didn't want  
to listen and, finally, all they wanted  
was to shut him up

So they did. He tumbled  
off the staircase whose end  
he still couldn't see

But then he lay at the bottom  
and he could see.  
There's a chair at the top and if  
he sat there, he could  
control them all: the game-master  
who wouldn't let his pawns  
run wild.


	4. Carly Carmine

She was looking for more than the threads of a tale  
this time, and maybe that's what it was.  
She got too greedy, too selfish, too deep –

But she had no choice but to go in  
that deep. She can't just float  
and now there are other sorts of weights  
that weighed her down.  
She had to throw herself as deep as possible  
to mute it all out, to have the water  
help with the load

But she went too deep.

She couldn't swim back out again  
and she sunk only ever deeper  
and she drowned.

And when she woke up again, she flew  
with the light, far above  
the dark cold deep water  
of her grave.


	5. Greigar

He lived for revenge.  
He failed.

Perhaps it had been foolish  
all along. He'd thought he'd searched  
in the right place, but he'd missed  
what was right before his eyes  
with those lenses

And now he saw them, and missed  
even more: blood-coated lenses  
that hid the consequences, the traps.

Now he's in this van being driven off  
to jail and whatever will he accomplish  
there. How will he ever find them?

Then again, it doesn't really matter  
because they're dead.

He can only meet them again  
if he's dead, but then he'll have  
failed.  
It doesn't really matter  
because he's already failed

But then there's a man who's stopped  
the van and who offers him a chance,  
a chance to correct this failure,  
to meet his family on better terms,  
to get his revenge once more.

Perhaps it had been foolish  
all along. But he can only live  
to the tune of his heart, and it  
still bled and cried.


	6. Roman Goodwin

He chooses the stage of his death but he's still  
not satisfied. It's a choice orchestrated  
by fate.

He hadn't wanted to have a dragon's head  
on his arm, or a screaming soul  
or a slew of people who wouldn't  
ever leave him alone

And now he's added to that burden, hasn't he  
by dying and staying in this world,  
even if he's dead

Because the souls of all those he took with him  
still scream as well, in his ears, in his heart  
every night

But he accepts that because he's not screaming  
himself right now, and that's  
the most important thing.  
He's not warring with himself.

He can live steeped in blood and shadow  
if he must, but he can't live  
torn apart.

He couldn't have chosen differently.  
The light was too stretched. Maybe if  
the other marks were there –

But they're not.  
They're twenty years too late.

He had to choose the darkness, because  
it was the only one strong enough  
alone.


	7. Roman Goodwin

He, like his brother, chose his time and place to die  
except he'd never had to die. It wasn't fate;  
he wasn't born with a mark on his arm  
or a destiny carved into bone

But he was caught in his web anyway  
because all those people around him  
had been involved, and he couldn't abandon  
them at all.

So he played the path. The observer fate passed over  
until he had his chance to be  
truly one in there: the fate he'd been caught up in  
and yet still denied

And he'd do what the rest could not  
and maybe he could only do that  
because he'd been a moth in a spider's web  
and not a fly.


End file.
